You are invited to participate in a CommunityLearning Group for faculty,
Pedagogy 102, dedicated to investigating good teaching practices and the improvement of student learning.
Pedagogy 102 is a year-long, bi-monthlyCommunity Learning Groupfor facultysponsored annually by North’s Teaching and Learning Center, and facilitated by faculty development coordinator Jane Lister Reis. This year’s focus will again be on the investigation of the complex artistry we call teaching. Using L. Dee Fink’s book, Creating Significant Learning Experiences:An Integrated Approach to Designing College Coursesas our text, we will explore Fink’s central question, “What kinds of learning will be significant for [my] students, and how can I create a course [e.g., learning activities] that will result in that kind of learning?” To create a real learning lab environment in which to explore this central question, we will also participate as both ateacher and a learner where we can practice and explore together our teaching practice.
About our text:
“The whole point of this book is to offer ideas that can improve the way teaching is normally practiced in higher education. For this to happen, readers who teach will need to see, first, that there are ways of teaching that are different, significantly different, from what they are doing now. Second, they will need to be persuaded that these new and different ways of teaching will result in good things happening, both for their students and for themselves. Third, they will need guidance in figuring out how to teach in new ways. Finally, their institution…will need to recognize the worth of this effort and provide a proper level of encouragement and support” (L. Dee Fink, xii).
Here’s a sneak preview of thechapter titles:
1 Creating Significant Learning Experiences
2 A Taxonomy of Significant Learning
3 Designing Significant Learning Experiences I: Getting Started
4 Designing Significant Learning Experiences II: Shaping the Learning Experience
5 Changing the Way We Teach
6 Better Organizational Support for Faculty
7 The Human Significance of Good Teaching and Learning
Appendix A Planning Your Course: A Decision Guide
Appendix B Suggested Readings
Meeting Dates/Time/Location:
2nd and 4th Mondays of each month, 2:30-4:00 pm, CC2153
Fall Quarter (4 meetings)
October 12 and 26
November 9 and 23
Winter Quarter (5 meetings)
January 1 and 25
February 8 and 22
March 8
Spring Quarter (4 meetings)
April 12 and26
May 10 and 24
Expectations if you participate:
Because our intention is to create a safe and supportive learning community in which to investigate our teaching practices, please plan on making a commitment to participate fully at least for the first quarter. We can assess our meeting time/commitment at the end of fall quarter and make adjustments as needed.
You will be responsible for reading the assigned chapters. You will also be asked to teach your colleagues about a particular skill or concept fromone of your classes.
Pedagogy 102 participants should find it easy to integrate this teaching/learning inquiry with completion of their Assessment Loop Form activity,thereby making a real connection between issues of student learning in your courses with your own investigation of alternative pedagogies and curriculum design/construction.
Like all other learning communities on our campus, Pedagogy 102 participants will be asked to share any new discoveries at a campus-wide event at the end of spring quarter (to coincide with the annual Making Learning Visible Symposium). Our goal: to deepen our own practice as educators and to share what we have discovered with others in a way that invites continual investigation and improvement of this central part of our mission.
Interested in participating? Contact Jane Lister Reis, in the TLC.
The first 20 participantswill receive a free copy of the text.